After The (E)nd
by acrestedeagle
Summary: A2 wakes up in a world where she doesn't have to fight anymore. The fic follows what I think she would do after ending E. Originally posted on AO3.


A light breeze touches A2's face. She opens her eyes and without too much movement, analyzes her surroundings. She is sitting on a window, in a building near the edge of the crater. Far in the distance on her right, she can see the Abandoned Factory.

Closer than that, at a building in front of her, 2B and 9S are laying on the roof. There is movement at the right of that building. Pod 153 is carrying Pod 042. With them are a few more Pods, some of them carrying spare parts for the incapacitated androids. A small smile forms on her face. The young ones are going to be ok.

After some time she feels the need to move. A quick glance to the ground tells her that she is around 20 stories high. A simple drop to the ground would not be even close to damaging her systems. It would also be the fastest and most efficient way to reach the ground. But, after spending time at Pascal's village, she has come to appreciate slower paces more. So, she looks for the stairs. It doesn't take her long to find them, luckily still intact.

As she heads down, the realization that the neverending wars are over starts to settle. The machines are gone, most likely forever. YoRHa is destroyed so no more running away from them. Her old friend Anemone is safe. Another smile appears on her face and a feeling of electricity runs through her body. It feels like when she used to go Berserk, only this time, it doesn't hurt or strain her systems. That energy needs to be used. So she changes her pace. On every step, she now does a small kick with her foot, letting her momentum move her a few steps forward.

And all the way to the ground floor she goes, hopping from step to step like a small child.

* * *

The crater is filled with rubble from the destroyed Tower. Met with that view, A2 jumps to the roof of a nearby building. Then, she takes a step back, runs to the edge and leaps to the air. Her white hair swirls behind her as she flies towards the center of the crater. A quick comparison of the current scenery with the one from her memory, helps her pinpoint the location of what used to be the entrance to the Tower. She heads straight there.

Almost exactly at the center, she stops. Then she starts throwing, punching and destroying the broken Tower parts that stand in her way down.

Another broken piece stands in her way now. It's huge and curves like a machine head. A2 can't see where it starts and where it ends. She can't swing her weapon in the tight path she created in her way down here. So she uses her hands. Kneeling in the white material, she throws a punch at it. Then she throws another one with her other hand at the same spot. And again. And again. And again. There is a deep gong sound after each punch. Minutes pass. Then hours. She keeps hammering down to the now bloodstained surface. The skin on her knuckles is torn apart. The white surface breaks beneath her, and she falls to the ground as her systems shut down.

As her systems come back online, A2 realises she is laying on dirt. She is inside of something that used to be some sort of dome. It's cold and dark in here, but none of these things can really bother A2. Her attention is focused in front of her, in the Tower's doorway. The twins lay there, in the same position she had to leave them when she was chasing 9S. The only difference is Devola's head, now tilting towards her sister, lifeless.

A2 was expecting this. But she just had to sure. The twins had enough people turn their back on them. She also hoped that they might have miraculously survived, like her. But no, it seems like the twins would never find a happy ending.

She is crying. For the still bodies in front of her. For Number 4. For Number 16. For Number 21. For Rose. For Shion. For Lilly. For Dahlia. For Margaret. For Sonia. For Gerbera. For Erica. And for all the other nameless fighters that died in the meaningless wars. Sobs give place to screams. And she screams. It's like someone flipped a switch and all her emotions are surfacing. Dropped on her knees, she lays there, squeezing her arms and trying to regain some control.

A2 is climbing out through the path she made a few hours ago. In her mind, she questions again her decision to leave the twins untouched. No, it must have been the correct action. Nothing will go through the trouble of clearing all this rumble, as long as nobody knows that Popola and Devola are in there.

She is out now. A broken square piece is close and she picks it up. Then she places it on top of the entrance she made in the rumble. A few moments pass as she stays still, looking at the white, makeshift tomb. Then she leaves, jumping from one piece of rumble to the other, in the direction of the Abandoned Factory.

* * *

The factory smells of rust and salt. A2 is sitting at the top of the huge ramp looking at the ocean. She remembers Pascal taking control of a Goliath and stopping a whole army of machines to protect his children. She remembers them returning into the factory, to be greeted by the lifeless bodies of those same children. She remembers Pascal asking her help. And she remembers herself cutting him down.

Now, she gets up and heads inside. The doors open and the bodies are there. The children's bodies with the machine swords through their cores. Pascal, closer to her, his lifeless eyes looking towards them. She doesn't want to leave them here, in the dark, rusty factory.

A2 kneels near a small body. She calmly removes the sword, then throws it away. Then she picks up the kid's body. She didn't learn its name. It may never had one. It doesn't really matter now. She will remember it as one of Pascal's children. Being what she is, she'll never forget any of them.

Carrying the kid in her arms, she dashes out of the factory, through the city and into the forest.

Small gusts of air are moving the tree branches above her. A2 is at the now abandoned machine village. The giant tree is still standing tall, with only a few charred spots in its trunk. The forest is mostly green, with only some of the nearby trees burned from the attack. A2 brings the kid down at the roots and gently places it on the ground. She pauses for a second, then runs back to the factory to bring the rest of the bodies.

There is a row of little bodies at the bottom of the tree now. She places Pascal in the middle. From afar, they look like a big family enjoying the sun. Or whatever rays manage to pass the roof of the forest. It's the closest thing to a peaceful end she can offer them. The data inside them may be wiped, the bodies may be just hunks of metal, but all of them used to be alive. Some of them, she could call friends.

Even though the act of bringing them here is meaningless, she still preferred to have them be here. In a place where they were happy and safe, instead of leaving them at the place of their most frightening hour.

* * *

A2 is walking back into the city ruins. She decided to take the long way there, so she is arriving through the mall. Movement catches her eye as she walks out of the building.

Two androids in black are walking along the other side of the canyon. It's 2B and 9S. 9S is talking about something to 2B, moving in erratic circles around the calmer 2B in his excitement. 2B is at ease, listening to the boy with a smile on her lips. A2 looks at them for a bit, then, as 9S turns his head at her direction, she hides. The young android is cured of the virus, but she still doesn't want to appear in front of him. Not for some time at least.

After some time, during which she was replaying old memories of Pascal's children, she peeks out of her hiding place. The lovebirds have turned their backs on her location and are walking towards the amusement park. Something is different about 2B. She now wears a small pink ribbon on the back of her head. A2 recognizes it as the ribbon that the little machine sister was wearing.

Her eyes drift to the environment around her. A bloodstained rock is near. A2 recognizes the rock formation. It's were she pushed Virtuous Contract through 2B's corrupted body. There, a blue ribbon is carefully placed. And something is carved near it.

"Thank you."

Another smile. She puts the ribbon on. Still smiling, she leaps over the canyon. It's time to go back to Anemone. She has a lot to talk to her about. As she dashes through the overgrown grass, she puts her hand on the ribbon and her smile grows even more. She has comrades again. Friends. A younger sister. And no one is going to hurt them.


End file.
